Just when Al Oshlack thought he could get a breather from taking the North Lismore Plateau Housing Development to court, last week he started planning the next court case.

Al is a legal representative from the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network and he’s been working with Indigenous Elder Mickey Ryan to oppose the development – and he’s vowed never to give up.

The controversial 430 lot housing development has reared its head at Council meetings a few times now.

Al said last week’s vote by Lismore Councillors to approve the development was unique in that it was the first Development Approval (DA) where councillors got to vote for or against the DA going ahead.

“The last time we had a court case to stop this development, it was the Northern Rivers Planning panel and the local government planning minister making decisions on the development – now it’s Council,” Al said.

Read more: Court deems North Lismore Plateau development 'invalid'

Then, in July this year, Lismore councillors agreed to hand over 37 hectares of council-owned land on the North Lismore Plateau to its traditional owners.

Read more: Historic vote as LCC votes to hand back land at North Lismore Plateau

Despite this, Al still intends to take to court every DA that is proposed for development on North Lismore Plateau.

“And each court case takes at least 12 months,” he said.

Al cites a number of reasons as to why the development should not go ahead – including the ecological destruction of an endangered plant species (hairy joint grass) and a big impact on flooding and pollution in North Lismore.

“There will be thousands of car movements a day onto Dunoon road,” Al said. “The infrastructure there cannot handle it – and there’s also not one social housing proposal for the plateau.”

Al also cites noise issues for those who might live in the development from the nearby speedway at Lismore Showgrounds.

“There’s also the go cart tracks, the Lismore Show, Tropical Fruits New Year party and Gemfest that take place in the showgrounds,” Al said

“We believe they will move to shut the speedway down if the development goes ahead - and we need to be aware of this.”

In a previous court case held in May 2020, Al highlighted the pollution and flooding problems, caused by building a housing development in a flood plain.

“We get heavy rainfall and the development will construct a huge storm water drain and pump water straight into Slater Creek, which will add to flooding on North Lismore," he said.

“This has also not been assessed.

“You’d think they would consider that – and we hope the NSW Land and Environment Court will think likewise.”